282: Chapter 134: Surviving the Calamity_1 282: Chapter 134: Surviving the Calamity_1 Perhaps everything begins in chaos and ends in chaos as well.
The soul seed to have frozen, with every thought slow, arduous, and heavy.
Jiang Wang had forgotten many things.
He gradually couldn’t rember where he was, why he had co, or where he was going.
His heart felt heavy.
He wanted to slow down, slow even more… and fall asleep.
He was very tired, like a taut string that had never relaxed for a mont.
He could not hold on any longer.
He wanted to collapse, not caring about anything, just to collapse.
But for so reason, there was a vague resistance in his heart.
What am I resisting?
He struggled to think.
“Brother, will we ever go ho?”
“We don’t have a ho anymore.”
“Then what about Ru Cheng Brother, Ling He Brother, A Zhan Brother, Disciple Master Tang Dun, the Master… are they still there?”
“Brother doesn’t know.
Maybe they also escaped, just not in the sa direction as us.”
“Oh.
Then we can go look for them.”
“The world is too large, once separated, it’s possible we’ll never find them again.”
“Then when I grow up, I’ll go look for them with you.”
“…Okay.”
“Brother?”
“Brother is here.”
Brother is here.
Brother will take you to find them.
If the spirit was entirely shrouded in darkness, then at its deepest core, there was a flickering, eternal fla whispering softly.
That fla was tiny.
“Brother is here.”
“Brother will take you.”
The fla flickered, struggled, seed on the verge of falling.
It seed as if it would go out at any mont, yet astonishingly, it always kept burning.
That was the original spark.
Will of steel, tenacity like a boulder.
No one before him, nothing behind him.
Supporting himself alone, swaying yet not falling, he continued to burn.
Burning, burning…
“If not for Lord Jiang, how could we survive?”
“We will never forget Lord Jiang Wang’s great kindness and generosity.”
“I pray to the heavens that Young Master Jiang will stay in Green Sheep Town forever.”
“Supre on the Dao, this humble believer prays for Lord Jiang’s blessing, wishing him eternal life and everlasting fortune.”
…
Voices from nowhere filled this world.
Or perhaps they had always been there but beca clear only in the Mirror World of the Red Mirror.
They had different nas, but all floated to the ears of Jiang Wang.
A child’s voice prayed like this—
“Bodhisattva Jiang, I wish you good health.”
At first the world was pitch black, and then there was fire, giving rise to light.
Fire is the beginning of life.
Humans use fire to cook food, to fend off the cold, and to light up the night.
Countless blessings are countless lights.
The small fire deep within Jiang Wang’s spirit seed to be slowly growing stronger, no longer flickering on the verge of extinguishing.
Peace, peace.
Jiang Wang’s thoughts began to turn, albeit with difficulty.
Gradually, his senses were revived.
Finally, a voice sounded at the bottom of his heart—
“The master of the Fountainhead Cave has initiated a challenge, do you accept the fight?”
Jiang Wang realized in his heart that it was already the fifteenth of July, the day of the Taixu Illusion Realm’s blessed land challenge.
The so-called Thought moves in an instant, faster than sound and lightning.
Yet, it took twelve tis the effort for Jiang Wang to finally turn that thought—”Accept the challenge!”
The cool and omnipresent Taiyin Star Power enveloped him in an instant, and his Spirit was directly brought into the Taixu Illusion Realm, appearing before this challenge’s opponent.
A relaxation of the Spirit!
All the coldness, stiffness, delay, and numbness disappeared.
Only after losing it did he understand how free and beautiful the natural state of the Spirit was!
Jiang Wang didn’t even have ti to see what his opponent looked like, and hurriedly said, “Thank you!”
Then he directly admitted defeat and left the Taixu Illusion Realm, leaving his opponent there, utterly astonished.
With his fully restored Spirit reappearing in the snowfield world of the Red Mirror, the nine Star River Dao Spirals simulated within his Spirit began rotating together, seeming like endless power began surging.
Jiang Wang opened his eyes and burst forth from beneath the thick layers of snow!
He could only see that beneath his feet, the snow was pristine, and the sky was a clear azure blue—the snow had stopped!
[The blizzard ordeal has ended].
That voice, cold as frost-edged blades, seed to sigh.
[Youth unaging].
Starting from beneath Jiang Wang’s feet, the pristine snow gradually receded, the frozen soil lted, spring winds blew, green grass sprouted, swaying joyfully.
With a turn of his Spirit, Jiang Wang was back in his real body.
Without having had the ti to adapt to his body, which had been rigid for so long, he fell into a bewildered state of mind.
He felt both a sense of loss and gain.
Since the end of June when he entered the Red Mirror until the fifteenth of July, he endured a whole twenty days within the blizzard ordeal!
Twenty days and nights.
If it had not been for his astonishing willpower and persistence, with his current strength, he feared his Fire of Soul would have long been extinguished in the blizzard ordeal.
If it had not been for the tens of thousands of residents of Qingyang Town, their persistent thoughts and public sentint, those points of light that might be called “blessings” or “virtue” nourishing and supporting his Spirit, he would not have been able to last as long.
In the end, he waited for the challenge day of the Taixu Illusion Realm’s blessed land, waited for the mysterious and indescribable Taixu Illusion Realm to issue an invitation to et the challenge.
Every drink and every peck was determined by actions taken, desires pursued, and results achieved.
Jiang Wang felt a sense of lancholy for a while before starting to move his body.
Fortunately, the nine Star River Dao Spirals were always in motion, and the Coiling Star Serpent hadn’t rested either.
What he was truly concerned about, the Dark Candle, had also obediently stayed in place during this ti, without moving.
Jiang Wang regained control over his body instantly, took one step off the bed, and his bones made a cracking sound.
By the second step, his body had already adapted.
Bang!
Xiang Qian burst through the door.
Seeing Jiang Wang standing in front of the bed, he just blinked his dead fish eyes and said indifferently, “Still alive, huh?”
Then he turned and left.
The sharp Sword Qi that burst forth at the mont the door was broken startled Jiang Wang too.
He had always had high expectations of Xiang Qian, but now, he realized he might have underestimated him.
He twisted his neck, bared his teeth in a smile, and said, “My journey doesn’t end here.”
Dugu Xiao, Zhu Biqiong, and Zhang Hai, upon hearing the news of Jiang Wang’s awakening, ca to greet him one after another.
Jiang Wang spoke with them and had a rough understanding of the town’s affairs during this ti before he locked himself back in his room.
If the blizzard ordeal was indeed a test, then there must be rewards after the test.
However, since the Red Mirror provided no hints, Jiang Wang could only grope his way forward.
He entered the Red Mirror with his Flesh Body again and found that the space within the Mirror World had indeed grown larger, turning into a circle with a radius of five steps.
Beyond the circle was still an impassable expanse of white, but within it, he could move around freely.
The range that the Red Mirror could explore had also expanded to the maximum of five miles.
The Red Mirror could also construct images within this range.
Clearly, the range the Red Mirror could explore was positively correlated with the space occupied by the Flesh Body in the Mirror World.
About one mile per step.
He surmised entering the Red Mirror with his Spirit again would also be different—but he didn’t dare to try it, fearful of encountering another ordeal imdiately upon entering.
This highlights the importance of a renowned ntor from a noble sect.
They can guide the correct path on the journey of cultivation, inform disciples of the taboos and dangers of Magic Artifacts, greatly reducing the chances of Cultivators inadvertently courting death.
Talking about this now is pointless.
Jiang Wang hadn’t forgotten the original purpose for entering the world inside the Red Mirror.
The Red Mirror’s effects had grown stronger, but the outco seed unaltered, still appearing to be of no help.
But Jiang Wang always felt that the changes brought about by the blizzard ordeal were not so simple.
Or to put it another way, the gains from the blizzard ordeal were not just within the Red Mirror.
So.
He examined himself.
What did the blizzard ordeal, which lasted for twenty days in the real world and for an interminably long ti in the snowfield world within the mirror, bring to him?
…
…
Note (1): The original sentence is from the modern poem “The First Prayer,” “Buddha, wish you good health.”
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